The rain in Spain...

...does indeed fall mainly on the plain, currently in the form of stinging droplets driven by gale force winds. I have crossed La Rioja, which may bring to mind the cheerful wines of the sun-drenched south. But I found it very depressing - a poor, desolate and wind-swept region whose fields, reeking of nitrate fertilisers, alternate with strips of industrial wasteland. I passed through Cirueña, a ghost town of luxury apartments that have never been lived in, haunting reminders of the housing boom and the crisis. It felt truly post-apocalyptic - one of the saddest places I have ever been.

A boarded-up brothel beside the Camino.

Fields and industrial parks.